EUROPEAN UNION ELECTION OBSERVATION MISSION
Plot 3/110a Musonda Ngosa Road
Lusaka
Telephone: +260 1 223935/6, 223940; Fax: +260 1 223941
E-mail: eueu@coppernet.zm
Website: www.eueu-Zambia.org
Chief Observer: Michael Meadowcroft

SECOND INTERIM STATEMENT ON THE 2001 ZAMBIAN ELECTIONS

1 The European Union responded to the invitation from the Zambian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to observe the 2001 Presidential, parliamentary and local elections by sending sixteen Long Term Observers (LTOs) and eighty-six Short Term Observers (STOs).The European Union established an EU Electoral Unit office in central Lusaka in June 2001 and its core team met with the Electoral Commission of Zambia, political parties, media and civil society organisations. The LTOs arrived in Zambia on 27^th November and set up bases in all provinces. In due course the STOs were deployed in all nine provinces and visited 638 polling stations. The Mission will in due course also publish a report on its work in Zambia.

2 The EU Election Observation Mission (EUEOM) is in Zambia to monitor all stages of the electoral process. With the long drawn out process, particularly in relation to the constituency and national tabulations, its work is not yet complete. This is therefore an interim statement.

3 The observer team would like to thank the election officials, the parties and the voters of Zambia for their welcome and their co-operation. Their involvement in the campaign and their commitment, as in previous elections, to a largely peaceful electoral process were examples of Zambian society at its best.

4 Zambia’s civil society organisations play a key role in the democratic process. The broad base of participation in the Oasis Forum earlier this year was significant in the success of the campaign against a third term for the incumbent President. FODEP has a long and respected record of monitoring Zambian elections and, along with the members of Coalition 2001, was present at almost every polling station at this election. The Church organisations are also highly committed and are involved in every province.

5 Any judgement of the quality of an election and any assessment of its fairness must commence with its preparation. Without the essential building blocks of effective voter registration and careful constituency delimitation the electoral process inevitably suffers. Our Interim Statement of 17 December drew attention to shortcomings in both areas. Essentially a voter registration level of 55% is too low to allay suspicions that the list has not been equally accessible to supporters of government and opposition parties alike. And the exceptionally wide variations in constituency sizes - from 5028 to 61328 - indicate the need for a fresh delimitation exercise.

6 Elections are rarely manipulated successfully on polling day but they are often influenced by bias during the weeks preceding it. In its agreement with the EU in September 2000, the Government of the Republic of Zambia committed itself to a level playing field for the 2001 elections. Sadly that commitment has not been fulfilled. Despite the clear terms of the Code of Conduct contained in the 1996 “Electoral (Conduct) Regulations” - underpinned for the first time by forcing all candidates to commit themselves to compliance with it when signing their nomination papers - its key provisions have been disregarded. Five aspects of this unsatisfactory situation are:

[1] District Administrators continued to be prominent in the campaigning activities of the ruling party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), despite the High Court ruling of 4 December 2001 declaring that, as civil servants, they were not permitted to engage in political activity;

[2] Media monitoring carried out for the EU EOM shows that the state-owned media, the Zambian National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) - in both its television and radio transmissions - the Daily Mail, the Times, the Sunday Mail and the Sunday Times, have been heavily weighted in favour of the MMD; this culminated most vividly in the cancelling by ZNBC of a long planned and carefully organised live debate on the eve of poll with presidential candidates in order to transmit an hour long interview with President Chiluba which was an obvious campaigning broadcast on behalf of MMD and it presidential candidate; ZNBC even disobeyed a High Court order instructing it to fulfil its contract to transmit the debate;

[3] State resources have been openly used in support of the MMD, with, for instance, government vehicles showing GRZ plates noted in use in MMD campaigns;

[4] The MMD has at times failed to maintain a distinction between government and party; at its opening rally in Kitwe, for instance, its published agenda showed (1) speech by President Chiluba; (2) speech by Levy Mwanawasa, MMD presidential candidate; (3) distribution of leases on houses in the Copperbelt;

[5] the authorities have on occasion treated MMD and opposition parties differently during the election. Observers have reported that the opposition parties have been denied permission for meetings, or have even had them cancelled, over periods of days, because President Chiluba “might be arriving”.

The Election Commission of Zambia (ECZ) Chairman’s regular published statements that the Commission did not have any powers to enforce the law, coupled with a police chief’s statement that they would not implement the law and that complainants would have to go to the ECZ, have meant that those breaking the Code of Conduct have been able to do so with impunity.

7 The choice of a 27 December polling date by the President, and the Government’s failure to declare it a public holiday, created considerable inconvenience for voters, many of whom were away from their place of registration. This applied particularly to students, most of whom had registered at their place of study. However, it was noticeable that at both the University of Zambia and the Copperbelt University many students had deliberately stayed around, or had returned, in order to vote. The climatic conditions in late December also caused problems for election officials in their task of getting election materials to every polling district.

8 It is never easy to determine the effect of such a consistently unlevelled playing field, but its very existence, and the belief in its efficacy on the part of those promoting it, undermines the concept of a free and fair election.

9 The picture reported by our observers is of Zambian citizens turning out in considerable numbers with a determination to vote. Queues were forming at polling stations long before the polls were due to open. The spirit amongst the voters was enthusiastic and peaceful. The polling officials were professional and helpful and the police presence was minimal. We congratulate the Zambian people on their commitment to democracy and to peaceful participation in the electoral process. We also commend the polling station staff for their patience and professionalism.

However, as polling day progressed, the initial enthusiasm was eroded bit by bit in a number of polling stations as it became clear that the time taken for voters to go through the three ballots would require a considerable length of time in the queue. This problem was exacerbated by the lack of sufficient lines to enable voters to be processed quickly where there were far more than the average 500 voters registered at a particular polling station. This was particularly evident at the University of Zambia which had over 4,000 registered voters at a single polling station. The ECZ had put the same number of polling staff at every polling station, whether it had 400 or 4,000 voters to cope with.

Clearly the ECZ had not made any accurate estimate of the time required for substantial numbers of people to vote and, even where voting started on time, many polling stations had to remain open well into the next morning in order for all those present to be able to vote. This is regrettable.

In a number of cases basic polling materials and equipment were missing and some polling stations were unable to open at all and had to postpone voting until the 28^th. The lack of local government ballot papers in a number of polling stations meant that the municipal elections could not take place at all in those areas. At Mwinilunga, in North Western province, the polling stations ran out of ballot papers for all three elections, and they were eventually replenished by helicopter at 14.30 on 28 December. Kazungula in Southern Province ran out of Presidential election ballots and voting was held up while further supplies were obtained. Observers also reported a lack of polling booths and of vehicles, unsuitable premises, insufficient financial provision, and the lack of a local budget - particularly with flexibility to cope with widely different sizes of electorate. A serious problem in a number of polling stations was that the placing of the polling booth allowed others in the polling station to see how the elector was voting - or, in one case, to be seen from an outside window.

Observers noted the strong presence of party polling agents and of observers from domestic monitoring groups. Despite the lateness of the hour, and the weariness of polling staff, the counts progressed meticulously in almost all cases. In some cases the only light was from candles which was insufficient for the detailed task in hand. It was noted that many presiding officers treated the observers and polling agents as partners in the process and, for instance, invited their opinions on dubious ballot papers. In a few cases, such as in Ndola, the observers and party agents were kept at a distance that precluded them from seeing the marks on the ballot papers and therefore from being able to verify the accuracy of the count.

The constituency level tabulation was not always as well managed. Observers reported that in a number of cases the necessary forms from the polling station counts were either not properly completed or did not exist, and in a few cases the polling agents were even enlisted in the search for accurate and agreed figures. In a few cases the polling station votes were completely recounted at the constituency level.

10 If the situation in some provincial constituencies was bad, in many parts of Lusaka it was chaotic. In most of Matero constituency, and in parts of Mandevu and Munali, ballot boxes had not arrived the day before polling day as promised. Incredibly the ECZ only began delivering ballot boxes at 06.30 on polling day itself, initially with a single lorry, to 64 polling stations. This delivery was not completed until 14.00 hours. Consequently some polling stations did not open until more than eight hours after the stated time.

Crowds of voters, who had come enthusiastically and cheerfully to vote found themselves in their hundreds, and, in some cases their thousands, outside closed polling stations. Their frustration and disappointment was clear in their comments to observers. With only few exceptions these crowds remained calm for hour after hour and maintained an exemplary spirit, as did the polling station staff and the police. At Kanyama Primary School, even though all the equipment was present, the planning was inimical to good electoral practice. There were eleven polling stations at the single building, with only a supply of candles for illumination. Zambian citizens deserved better treatment than they received at the hands of the electoral authorities.

It was noticeable that the lack of polling materials was only at those polling stations serving the compounds and not at those in more middle class areas of Lusaka.

11 The party campaigns were rudimentary in that, outside the main urban centres, there were few formal meetings. One party adopted a popular format of travelling from village to village and stopping briefly at each clearing to address the local voters. There was very little campaign literature noted. The Press Freedom Committee of The Post newspaper put on a long - and lively - series of constituency based debates. No MMD candidate took part in any debate with opponents.

The saga of televised Presidential and parliamentary debates was instructive. Three organisations made plans for televised debates between the various Presidential candidates: the ECZ through its “Media Access for Parties” programme, PANOS with the Zambian Institute for Mass Communications (ZAMCOM), and a group of three NGOs - Lusaka Press Club, Kepros Media Institute and the Institute for South African Studies. Funding was provided for different styles and timings of debates, and careful planning and scheduling agreed. Then on 22 November, Judge Bwalya, Chairperson of the ECZ, announced that the Government would not allow any debates between candidates because of the danger of abusive language. All the ECZ’ debates were cancelled. The Government forbade live debates on ZNBC and informed Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN), an independent and mainly religious television channel, which had broadcast one of the NGOs’ six debates, that its government licence was limited to religious broadcasting. The three NGOs obtained a High Court Injunction instructing TBN to fulfil its contract and the remaining five debates were broadcast. This left the PANOS/ZAMCOM broadcasts; one pre-recorded debate between the six candidates who accepted the invitation to participate was transmitted and plans were made, and contracts exchanged, for a live broadcast on the eve of poll. All the preparations were in place when ZNBC cancelled the programme on the day of intended transmission and replaced it with an interview with the Republican President. PANOS and ZAMCOM obtained a High Court injunction ordering ZNBC to fulfil its contract, but this was ignored.

12 We have set out evidence of many serious shortcomings of this election before, during and after polling day. We are clear that the electoral process, particularly in many areas on polling day, was badly planned and poorly managed at the national level. The delays and the slowness of the process were avoidable and inexcusable.

The question for the EU EOM, therefore, is whether the failures in the electoral process had an effect on the level of voting and, consequentially, affected the result. Overall there was a massive determination to stay however long it took, but there is also some evidence from observers to suggest that a number of people were unable to vote as a consequence of the situation. Workers who had to leave the queue to go to their employment; elderly voters who found it difficult to stand for hours without food or shelter; mothers with young children, and those simply shut out at 05.00 the next morning, such as at Mtendere and at Chongwe, when weary polling officials closed the doors. How common such instances were is difficult to assess, but they were certainly important to those individuals who wanted to take part in these elections and who wished to add their support to their chosen candidates.